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 The children ranged in age from 6 to 13. The bodies of all eight
victims, some of them handcuffed, were found in three bedrooms of
the house, Craig Clopton, a homicide detective with the Harris
County Sheriff's office, told a news conference.
David Conley, 48, surrendered to police after a standoff at the
house on Saturday night that lasted several hours, said Harris
County Chief Deputy Sheriff Tim Cannon.
The dead included married couple, Valerie and Dwayne Jackson, and
six children, one of them Conley's 13 year-old son Nathaniel. Conley
had a prior relationship with the dead woman, and the shootings are
believed to have stemmed from a domestic dispute, Cannon said.
"The mass killing and the taking of the entire family are tragic
realities our community has been forced to confront all too often,"
Cannon said. "We do not and cannot fully comprehend the motivation
of an individual that would take the lives of so many innocent
people, especially the lives of the young people."
Sheriff's deputies went to the house after a relative of one of the
victims asked for a check on the family's welfare, Cannon said. They
called for backup after learning that there was a man inside the
home wanted for a prior aggravated assault.
When the deputies spotted the body of child through a window, they
tried to force their way inside the home and were shot at before
pulling back and calling for help.
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Conley is being held without bond on three counts of capital murder,
but each count can cover multiple offenses, officials said.
Authorities identified the children as Nathaniel Conley, 13, Honesty
Jackson, 11, Dwayne Jackson, 10, Caleb Jackson, 9,
Trinity Jackson, 7, and Jonah Jackson, 6.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City Editing by Jill Serjeant
and Eric Walsh)
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